When you sign up to be an affiliate with GDI, you get a unique domain and the tools to use it. One of those tools is WordPress, a ready-to-use plugin that allows you to build a blog or website with little experience or special skills. Chances are you’ve visited a blog, or many, powered by WordPress. But did you know WordPress offers many other features beyond just a platform to put up blog posts?

Read on to learn about some powerful WordPress features that are included in your WordPress plugin.

Themes

WordPress powered websites are endlessly customizable. GDI offers our own branded theme that you can find by navigating to Dashboard>Appearance>Themes and choosing the GDI Template theme and clicking Activate. If you’d like something different, consider browsing the themes that are offered for free through WordPress.

Still not finding what you’d like? You can find many more themes on websites all over the internet, just type what you’re looking for and “WordPress theme” into your favorite search engine. While many of these themes are free, uploading them and getting them to display can be a little bit more difficult than using themes that are available right through the WordPress platform. Lastly, if you’re still not finding what you’d like for free, some people offer themes for a variety of prices. Be sure you’re on a reputable website and you know how to use the theme before purchasing.

Pages

WordPress allows you to create many unique pages in addition to creating unique blog postings. Pages are different from individual posts and in most themes will appear at the top navigation of your blog or website. These pages are a great option if you would like to use the WordPress plugin to share blog posts, but also want to have easy-to-access information on your website that you don’t have to update frequently. Consider putting information about yourself, your business, or your affiliate opportunity on individual pages on your site. Also consider hosting tutorial videos or services on this pages, so visitors can easily access them without having to scroll through multiple posts.

Website Beyond Blogs

WordPress can be used to build much more than your standard blog. Browse through available themes and you can see easy to build website formats or blog style posting that better showcases photos and video.

Multimedia Support

Blogs don’t have to be all about text. WordPress offers great support tools if you want to include more media in your postings. WordPress’s media library stores all the photos and videos you’ve ever uploaded to your site and gives you easy access and direct links to your media. These direct links are great if you ever want to host and link to an image. There’s no need to use services like Imgur to link directly to uploaded media when you use the media library. WordPress also allows for additional plugins that support media like podcasts and better video. To find these and any other WordPress plugin, head to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins>Add New.

Subscription, Contact, Search, and More

WordPress also offers some simple services that are great for building a business. These services are subscription, search, and contact forms. The built in subscription widget allows people to sign up to receive emails whenever you post something new on your blog. The contact form gives you a chance to connect with website visitors that want to connect directly with you. Search allows all visitors to find the just the content they’re looking for on your site. These simple services all come already included with WordPress, no updates or plugins needed.

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How much disk space do I have for my plugins?
Regular customers may use up to 10 GB of space for the sum of all their plugins. Premium customers have 100 GB of space available for the sum of all their plugins.

What is the username and password for my plugin?
Plugins are created with the same username and password you use for your GDI account. With some plugins, you are able to change the username and password from inside the plugin. If you do, it will not change your GDI account credentials.

Where do these plugins come from?
We’ve scoured the web looking for diverse open source services that are powerful but don’t require excessive technical know-how. We will be continously adding new plugins. Not every plugin will be right for you; some are targeted for a specific niche, and you may find some learning curves to be steeper than you care for.

Where can I learn more about a specific plugin?
Each plugin has their own site and community. You may learn more at:

What do the letters and numbers after the name of the plugin mean?
They are the names and version of the service being used. For example, “3.0” following “WordPress Blog” means that the version of WordPress being used for your blog is version 3.0. You cannot change the version in use, but we will update our services periodically as new versions become available and are known to be stable.

What is open source?
Open source software is usually created by a community of developers with interest in a common project. Code is openly contributed by community members, and anyone is able to see and review it. Generally the project is not-for-profit. Licensing differs among software projects, but generally open source is free to use so long as it’s properly attributed. You may use any of the plugins we introduce here in any manner you care to, so long as it abides by our normal Terms of Service.

How do I request a new plugin?
Use the “Request Support” link within your account, and provide the name of the plugin you have in mind, as well as a link to their site.

What does it mean if my service is “Primary” ?
The primary service will display directly at your domain. For example: http://demonstration.ws. All other services that are “on” must be at subdomains. For example: http://blog.demonstration.ws. Only one service may be primary. Other DNS options (like “SiteBuilder”, “Hosting”, “URL Forwarding”, or “Parking”) cannot be used while a primary service is turned “on”.

What is a subdomain?
Domains can be divided into levels by the use of a dot. For example: in subdomain.domain.ws the “top level” domain is “ws”. The second level domain is “domain”. The third level domain is “subdomain”. A subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain; for example, the third level domain is a subdomain of the second level domain, and the second level domain is a subdomain of the top level domain. Subdomains can have completely different sites than the domain they are subordinate to.

How many subdomains can I have?
For each domain, Basic members will receive 20 subdomains (5 per service), and Premium members receive 100 subdomains (25 per service).

Will I be charged for subdomains I create?
No. There is no cost for creating subdomains.

What is the difference between “Turn Off” and “Delete” for a plugin?
If you turn off a plugin, it will stop displaying online but your content will be saved for 60 days. During those 60 days, you may turn the plugin back on and the content will immediately display online. After 60 days, your content will be deleted. If you use the “Delete” option for a plugin, the content will stop displaying online and immediately be deleted. Deleted content cannot be retrieved.

How do I change my subdomain’s name?
You may either click the subdomain name itself, or select “Quick Rename” from the “Options” dropdown menu. Type in the new name, and press “Ok”.

May I move Plugins between domains?
Yes. If you have multiple domains, you may move a Plugin and all its content to another domain by using the “Move Service” option from the “Options” dropdown menu.

How do I replace the Drupal instructions with my own content?
When creating a new content block, select “Promoted to front page”.

GDI offers ready to use plugins for your website. All you need to do is navigate to WordPress and More in your Members Area and choose which ones you would like to turn on. Read on to learn a bit more about each plugin.

WordPress

WordPress is a free open source blogging software that has become one of the most popular and prominent content management services on the web. In WordPress.org’s own words: “The core software is built by hundreds of community volunteers, and when you’re ready for more there are thousands of plugins and themes available to transform your site into almost anything you can imagine. Over 25 million people have chosen WordPress to power the place on the web they call “home” – we’d love you to join the family.”

Forum

The forum plugin is powered by phpBB, which provides the tools to create online communities. phpBB says, “Millions of people use phpBB on a daily basis, making it the most widely used open source bulletin board system in the world. Whether you want to stay in touch with a small group of friends or are looking to set up a large multi-category board for a corporate website, phpBB has the features you need built-in.”

Gallery

The gallery is powered by Coppermine and gives you a space to upload and share photos and albums. You can create private albums, albums that require registration to view or public albums. Viewers of your gallery can also rate pictures and leave comments depending on how you adjust the settings.

Drupal

Drupal is an alternative way to build you WebSite. According to their site, “Drupal is an open source content management platform powering millions of websites and applications. It’s built, used, and supported by an active and diverse community of people around the world… Use Drupal to build everything from personal blogs to enterprise applications. Thousands of add-on modules and designs let you build any site you can imagine